Information Technology Reference
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dominant but currently eroding information retrieval research tradition,
the value of selection power was relatively consistent. In contrast, selec-
tion labor emerged experientially and as an empirically observable prac-
tice (written literacy), then divided further into description and search
labor, before reconverging as a single substantive category. Historical and
empirical considerations reinforced the validity of the proposition that
selection power is produced by selection labor, most clearly when infor-
mation has exosomatic and material aspects. Further consideration of the
value of the labor theoretic approach should include:
r
its formal qualities as a theory,
r
its relation to the objects described,
r
its connection to ordinary discourse and common experience, and
r
its absorption of preexisting theories.
Formally, the theory has simplicity and economy and can be reduced
to a brief series of statements—qualities usually valued strongly in a
theory. In relation to objects described, the theory adopted an expansive
understanding of information retrieval systems, accompanied by osten-
sive exemplification rather than restrictive definition. The theory was able
to comprehend systems in oral, written (premodern), and computational
(modern) modes. We identified a dynamic of change and possibilities for
deliberate and informed intervention in modern systems. Therefore, we
can consider the theory as comprehensive and powerful in relation to the
activities it takes as its object. The combination of simplicity and economy
with comprehensiveness and power makes the theory parsimonious, pos-
sibly representing a final reduction to essential and inescapable elements.
The comprehension of real-world practice is matched by closeness to
ordinary discourse and common experience. The concepts of selection
power and selection labor and the distinction of semantic from syntac-
tic labor have analogues in ordinary discourse conceptions and everyday
information practices. For instance, the analytical distinctions introduced
and employed between labor, process, and product all emerge from real
historical transformations of lived categories. Rooting in ordinary expe-
riences should give the theory further qualities of robustness and wide
applicability.
We have selectively absorbed preexisting theories from librarianship,
indexing, and classic information-retrieval research and also absorbed a
